assertion, that it could not continue one hour, at least among the moral
and charitable people of Boston, were they not utterly unacquainted with
the iniquities of the Romish church.
This fully explains the opposition to the circulation of the Wandering
Jew by the _infallible church_.
I have given the reader but a faint view of the persecutions of Popery,
down to the close of the fifteenth century, and revolting as they are,
there is no record to be found from which we can even infer, that the
church has ever altered her doctrine or practice, on the subject of
exterminating heretics, namely, all who are not Roman Catholics. If
there were any such record, it could not have escaped my notice. Some
Pope or some council would, long since, have given it to the world.
I was, as has been stated, born a Roman Catholic, and educated a priest
in that church. I solemnly declare to you, fellow-citizens of my adopted
country, that nothing has been more forcibly impressed upon my mind,
by my teachers, when a boy--by the priest to whom I confessed when
young--by the professors under whom I read Popish theology--or by
the bishop who ordained me, and with whom I lived subsequently as
chaplain--than the obligation I was under of extirpating heresy, by
argument, if possible; and, if not, by any other means, even to the
shedding of blood. And there is not now, in this country, an Irish
priest nor an Irish Roman Catholic, and _true_ son of the church, who
does not believe that, if he could collect all the heretics in the
United States, and form them into one pile, he would be serving God in
applying a torch to it. And, incredible as it may appear to you, their
church teaches them that, in doing so, they would be serving you.
The doctrine is taught now, as it was in past by their priests,
that _the body must be destroyed, for the good of the soul_. "It is a
benefit." say the pious Popish priests, "to heretics _to be killed;
the fewer will be his sins, and the shorter will be his hell!_" You
naturally shudder at this doctrine, but it is not many years since Leo
XII. in one of his _bulls of jubilee_, or indulgence to the faithful,
announces publicly, and without shame, or sorrow, proclaims to
Catholics, his _beloved subjects_, that in order to obtain the
indulgence granted by that bull of jubilee, there are two conditions,
without which, they can derive no benefit from it, namely, _the
exaltation of the holy mother church, and the extirpation of heresy_.
This "_blessed bull_" was published in 1825, and directed to the
archbishop of Baltimore, and all other Popish bishops in the United
States, to be made such use of as their _lordships_ may think proper!
Will you believe it, Americans, that this doctrine is taught, this
very day, in the college of Maynooth, Ireland. You will find it in De
LaHogue's Tract. Theolog. ch. viii. p. 404, of the Dublin edition. No
priest or bishop will question the authority of Dr. De La Hogue. He
has been professor in that college for nearly half a century. I must,
however, add here, for the information of all who are unac-quainted
with the doctrine of the pious frauds practised by Romish, priests, that
their respective bishops, or in his absence, the vicar-general, can give
any of them a dispensation to deny any truth or to tell any falsehood
for the "exaltation of holy mother church." I have received such
dispensations myself, but, not having the fear of the Pope before my
eyes, I took the liberty of disregarding them.
Many will ask me, Why have you not made these things known before now?
There were many reasons why I suppressed them.
I knew my motives, however disinterested, might then be questioned;
secondly, the public mind was not prepared for the developments which
I have made. Thirdly, my love of peace and quietness induced me
to withdraw to a part of the country, distant from the scene of my
controversy, hoping that the miscreant priests and bishops of the Romish
church would permit me to pursue my new profession of the law, without
interruption. But in this, as I ought to have known, I was disappointed.
Although I have not, since I left Philadelphia, until very recently,
even replied to the calumnies which vagabond Irish priests who infest
this country, and the still greater vagabond bishops who govern them,
together with the tools which they keep in their employment, have heaped
upon me; still they have, in the true spirit of their _vocation_, never
ceased to pursue me with their vengeance.
No sooner had I abjured the Pope, disregarded his-_bulls_, and thereby
become a heretic, than they had me burnt in effigy! But much more
gratified would they be, had they my person in the place of the
effigy. I still remained unmoved. Soon after this, Bishop England, of
Charleston, South Carolina, established a press, called the "Catholic
Miscellany," whose columns teemed, for months,--almost for years,--with
the grossest and vilest abuse against me; yet while this restless
demagogue, who is now in his grave, was spewing forth his filthy abuse,
I was prospering in my profession, and partially recovering my health,
which I thought was radically destroyed by the persecutions I suffered
in Philadelphia; and thus, while the Pope in Rome, and the Romish
bishops and priests of this country, were cursing me, Heaven was
blessing my efforts and gaining me the confidence of the virtuous and
good, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in my intercourse with the
world.
Strange indeed are the practices of Papists! Previous to my _heresy_ in
Philadelphia, there was not in that city a more popular man--not another
more respected; I may almost say, that there was no man, of any
pursuit or calling, whose friendship was more courted. Yet the moment
I committed the _unpardonable sin_ of differing with the Pope of Rome,
every one of his faithful children, not only there but throughout the
world, was bound by his oath of allegiance to persecute me in every
possible way.
Never forget, Americans, that the same oath of allegiance, which binds
them to persecute me, is also binding on them to persecute and destroy
you. Some of you will say, this cannot be. A church, numbering among her
priests such men as Massillon, Fenelon, Chevereux, and Taylor of Boston,
cannot entertain, much less command, a spirit of persecution. True, as
far as we can judge, these were godly men. They would be an honor to any
religion. But in the Popish church, they were like stars that strayed
from their homes, and losing their way, fell, by accident, upon the dark
firmament of sin and Popery; but even there, their native light could
not be obscured; on the contrary, the darker the clouds around them,
the more beautiful and brilliant did their light appear. Poor
Taylor,--"Peace be to thy memory,--we have been friends together."
Methinks I can, even now, feel the warm pressure of thy hand, see
the charities of thy soul beaming in thy speaking eye and gentle
countenance, yet thou too had been considered almost a heretic in the
city of New York, and would have been denounced as such by the rude and
vulgar bishop of that diocese, had not the amiable Chevereux interfered.
Often have I regretted that this Mr. Taylor, who was my classmate, and
companion of my youth, had not, in addition to his private virtues, more
fortitude and decision of character. He was the Erasmus of his day,
in the United States. He was born and educated a gentleman; so was the
amiable but timid Erasmus. He was educated a Roman Catholic; so was
Erasmus. He was a chaste and elegant classical scholar; so was Erasmus.
Taylor, knowing full well the corruptions of the Romish church, went
from New York to Rome, about the year 1822, in order to induce the Pope
to modify such of its doctrines as were objectionable in this country.
But he wanted courage, and hastily retreated back, lest he should be
consigned to the inquisition. Erasmus, too, wanted courage, a quality
as necessary for a reformer as it is to a general in storming a city
and hence it is; that those two amiable men, similar in character and
disposition, though living in ages widely apart, have lived ostensibly
members of a church, whose doctrines they loathed from the very bottom
of their souls.
This might have been the temper, the character, and the cause, why such
men as Massillon and Fenelon have lived and died Roman Catholics. They
felt, probably, as Erasmus did, when he said, "It is dangerous to speak,
and dangerous to be silent." "I fear," said he, in another place, "that
if a tumult arose, I should be like Peter in his fall." It is not at
all strange, that such men as we have spoken of, should have contented
themselves with having inculcated virtue, and denounced vice. There
were such men in all ages, and, as a modern writer expresses it, "in all
great religious movements there are undecided characters." But let it
be borne in mind, that even great and good as they seemed to be, and
eloquent and pious as they appeared, still they are only exceptions in
the great body of the advocates of Popery.
No wonder Americans look back to those lights in the dark and bloody
wilderness of Popery. It is refreshing to see them. They are green spots
in the deserts made barren and desolate, by Popish iniquities; and long
may their memories shine in unclouded lustre.
It is pleasant to the historian, who is wearied and disgusted with
contemplating the past and present horrors of Popery, to turn for a
moment from the frightful spectacle, and rest in devout contemplation on
the lives of those comparatively excellent men. How mistaken are those
would-be philanthropists, who, at the present time, teach Americans to
infer, that, because those were good and holy men, possessing a pious
and forgiving spirit, it follows that the Papist church, her bishops and
priests, entertain a similar spirit. This is equivalent to telling them
that all history, past and present, is false, a mere romance, the dream
of madmen. It is equivalent to telling them that the very history and
records of the lives of Fenelon, and Massillon, &c., were entitled to no
credit. Who can read, and not see that Rome has spilt oceans of blood
to enforce her cruel creed! Who can read, and not see that she has
squandered treasures enough to relieve the poor of civilized Europe, in
establishing and keeping up a despotism inimical to man and hateful to
God!
The Papists, even in this country, do not deny that they intend to
eradicate heresy, and to use every means which their church considers
_legitimate_ to effect that purpose. This the priests preach from
their pulpits; this they tell you to your beards. They admit their
determination to bring these United States, if possible, under the
_spiritual_ control of the court of Rome. They use the word _spiritual_,
in utter contempt of your understanding, to deceive you, and while using
it, they laugh at your credulity. Popish spiritual control, spiritual
allegiance! It is almost incredible that any body of men should have
the impudence to come forward, in the nineteenth century, and talk of
_spiritual allegiance_ to his royal holiness the King of Rome.
They admit their determination to possess this country, and have
the modesty to ask you to give them lands and churches, and means to
accomplish their object, and effectuate your destruction. Their next
step will be to quarter upon you an army of friars, Jesuits, or monks,
who will carry at the point of the bayonet what is left undone by
duplicity, treachery, and intrigue. This has been the fate of every
country where Popery has found a resting place, and America is the
only nation which, for the last three centuries, has given them such
a footing. They tried what they could do in China. They succeeded in
establishing several bishoprics, Jesuit convents, nunneries, monk-houses
and churches, among the peaceable and quiet Chinese; but happening to
differ among themselves on the subject of their respective temporal
rights, they, as in duty bound, referred their differences to the Pope.
This movement came to the ears of the emperor of China, whom they had
so long and so successfully deceived by the cant words, _spiritual
allegiance to the Pope_. The parties were summoned before his
commissioner to ascertain what was meant by _spiritual allegiance_. They
tried to explain it, but all their ingenuity, all their subtilty, could
not satisfy the commissioner that spiritual allegiance meant anything
else than what it fairly expressed, and as soon as he found that it
meant, in the eyes of the Pope and the Romish church, things real and
tangible, such as real estate, the conveying it from the rightful owner
under the laws of the land, to another under the laws of the Pope, who
lived in Rome, he satisfied himself, that the _spiritual supremacy_ of
the Pope meant, among other things, the power to govern the kingdoms of
the earth; to give away, and take them away, to whom and from whom, his
royal holiness pleased. The emperor instantly issued an order, directing
that every Roman Catholic bishop, priest, friar, Jesuit, monk, and nun,
within his empire, should quit, within a given time, on pain of losing
their heads. Many of them disobeyed the order and were executed, and
their churches levelled to the ground.
The Chinese had no objection to Papists worshipping God, according to
the dictates of their own conscience; but as soon as it was discovered
that they owed _spiritual allegiance_ to a foreign power, they deemed
it _prudent_ to remove them from the country. But the Chinese are
_barbarians_, and it seems reserved for this new world of ours, to
interpret properly the meaning of spiritual allegiance, and in all
differences, between our citizens and the agents of the Pope, as to the
temporalities of the Romish church, to lay the subject before his _royal
holiness_, and be governed by his decision.
Witness the difference between Bishop Hughes of New York, and the
trustees of a Roman Catholic church in Buffalo, only a few weeks ago.
Witness that in New Orleans, between the bishop and the trustees of the
Roman Catholic church. All these were referred to the Pope, who
decided the matter, without any respect or regard to the laws of this
government. Call you this _spiritual allegiance?_ Call you this an
exercise of spiritual power, on the part of his royal holiness the Pope?
Yes, you do; and it would not much surprise me, if the Papists of this
very city of Boston should recommend to its legislature, to lay the
difficulties between themselves and the state of South Carolina, before
the Pope of Rome for adjudication.
Should the day ever arrive, when the Papists have a majority in your
legislature, and a difference should occur between these states, the
Pope will be called in to decide it. I am at a loss to know how, even
in these days of transcendentalism, _any other meaning_ can be given to
_spiritual allegiance_, than that which the Roman Catholic gives it in
practice. They consider the Pope, as the _spiritual_ head of the church,
has, _a fortiori, a divine right_ to be the head and sovereign of the
world. This is the sense in which Catholics understand and act upon it,
and swear to support the Pope, as the supreme arbiter of the destinies
of the world. The Chinese understood this. The emperor of Russia
understands it at the present day; and though a Catholic himself, no
priest or bishop, within his vast dominions, dare avow any allegiance,
_spiritual_ or temporal, to the king or Pope of Rome.
The holy synod of St. Petersburg, Russia, have notified the Catholic
missionaries, who have incited rebellion, and interfered with the civil
authorities in Georgia, to renounce their intercourse with the see
of Rome, or quit the country. But Americans, in the alembic of
their fertile brains, have manufactured a definition for _spiritual
allegiance_, peculiarly their own, for which the Papists are so much
obliged to them, that whenever an opportunity of knocking out the
aforesaid brains occurs, they will do so. Witness in the Philadelphia
riots, &c, &c, strong proofs of the _spirituality_ of that allegiance
which Catholics owe to the Pope.
Permit me to give you another evidence of the nature of that allegiance
to the Pope of Rome, to which I have heretofore alluded. It is to be
found in the massacre of the Huguenots, by Roman Catholics. There is no
event in the history of France, with which the world is more familiar,
than this. Several historians have related it with great minuteness and
much elegance. To these I can add nothing of my own, and the reader is
more indebted to them, for the following statement, than to myself.
MASSACRE OF THE HUGUENOTS.
This bloody massacre took place immediately after the conclusion of
the treaty of St. Germain, at which the hostilities which had so long
existed between the Catholics and Protestants in France, were suspended,
or, as the Protestants believed, were entirely terminated. The
sufferings of the Protestants, up to the conclusion of that treaty, were
truly great. Their property was wasted; their beautiful chateaus were
burned and levelled to the ground; their flourishing vineyards were
destroyed, and they themselves were left, reduced in property and
numbers; but great as were their calamities, the spirit which lived
within them was not quenched. Their hearts, though oppressed, 7 were
not broken. The love of God bore them up against all their trials and
privations. Among those who suffered most in the Protestant cause,
was the brave and pious Admiral Coligny, who, after the treaty of St.
Germain, and the destruction of his beautiful estates by order of the
Popish and bloody Catharine, retired to Rochelle. Even here there was no
safety for him. The licentious queen, and her paramours, consisting of
priests, determined on his destruction. It is said of this woman, that
she occupied twelve years of her life in instructing her son Charles to
swear, to blaspheme, to break his word, and to disguise his thoughts as
well as face. We are told by contemporary historians, that this _blessed
daughter_ of the holy church supplied him with small animals, when a
child, and a sharp sword to cut off their heads, and shed their blood by
stabbing them; all this to familiarize him with the shedding of blood,
and that at some future day he might indulge in the same amusement
upon a larger scale, in cutting off the heads and stabbing heretics and
Protestants. The persecutions of the Huguenots are known almost to all
readers; few there are, who are not familiar with them. The illustrious
characters, who headed the Protestant cause in those days, are known
to all Protestant Americans, but none of them, perhaps, more intimately
than the great Coligny, who was one of the first martyrs to that
wretched Popish thing, in the shape of a woman, Catharine de Medicis,
regent of France. I trust, therefore, the reader will pardon me for
giving a few incidents in the life of this nobleman and martyr, during
one of the regencies of this Popish queen Catharine. After the marriage
of Henry of Navarre, Coligny, as we are told, suddenly retired from the
banquet given upon the occasion at the Louvre. It was remarked that he
seemed sad and dejected. He retired to his hotel, which he would have
gladly left and returned home, but dreading that he might alarm his
wife, he preferred writing to her, explaining matters as far as he
could, under existing circumstances. The letter is so interesting, so
affectionate, and altogether so worthy of the good man, that I cannot
refrain from laying it before my readers. It was as follows:!!!!!
"My very dear and much beloved wife:
"This day, was performed the ceremony of marriage between the king's
sister and the king of Navarre. The ensuing three or four days will
be spent in amusements, banquets, masks, and sham-fights. The king has
assured me that, immediately afterwards, he will give me some days to
hear the complaints, made in divers parts of the kingdom, touching the
edict of pacification, which is violated there. It is with good reason
that I attend to this matter as much as possible; for, though I have a
strong wish to see you, still you would be angry with me (as I think) if
I were remiss in such an affair, and harm came of it from my neglect to
do my duty. At any rate, this delay will not retard my departure from
this place so long but that I shall have leave to quit it next week. If
I had regard to myself alone, I had much rather be with you than stay
longer here, for reasons which I will tell you. But we ought to consider
the public welfare as far more important than our private benefit. I
have some other things to tell you, as soon as I shall have the means to
see you--which I desire, day and night. As for the news that I have to
tell you, they are these: This day, at four in the afternoon, the bells
were rung, when the mass of the bride was chanted. The king of Navarre
walked about the while in an open place near the church, with some
gentlemen of our religion who had accompanied him. There are other
little particulars which I omit, intending to tell you them when I see
you. Whereupon I pray God, my most dear and beloved wife, to have you in
his holy keeping. From Paris, this 18th of August, 1572.
"Three days back I was tormented with colic and pain in the loins. But
this complaint lasted only eight or ten hours, thanks be to God, through
whose goodness I am now delivered from those pains. Be assured on
my part, that amidst these festivities and pastimes, I will not give
offence to any one. Adieu, once more,
"Your loving husband,
"Chastillon."